Whether you’re a solo act or already have a team of employees in place, the best web hosting for small business helps attract new customers and expands your brand’s reach.
Just as businesses and their hosting needs are unique, so are the solutions that web hosting companies provide. Whether you run a million-dollar eCommerce store or want a simple website for your local restaurant, we can help you find the best hosting company.
Affordability is a major factor to consider, along with a strong domain name, design, and email or eCommerce capabilities. You might want unlimited data storage, or prefer stellar customer or technical support.
Although it sounds daunting and complicated, setting up a website for your small business doesn’t have to be painful. Read on to discover our recommended hosts.
Most Affordable Hosting for Small Business
We all get tempted by the notion of free web hosting, but trust us — the flexibility, support, and added features with even bare-bones shared hosting plans are well worth the tiny investment.
Most hosts will include a free domain, free email accounts, a boatload of storage, and basic eCommerce functionalities in their shared hosting plans for less than $5 a month. All three of our favorite companies for cheap hosting throw in a bunch of features and free advertising credits that will boost your business:
1. Bluehost.com Bluehost has a rock-solid reputation in the shared and WordPress hosting communities, and the host been a long-time favorite host of mine. Today, the company powers more than 2 million websites, and the team touts years of experience.
With well-maintained servers, competitive pricing, and excellent support, Bluehost is hardly a pick you'll regret. Bluehost is:
Known for high performance at a low price
Endorsed by WordPress.org team
FREE Weebly site builder and CloudFlare CDN
FREE domain and unlimited storage
Get 65% off today
If you’re looking for an affordable host, Bluehost is a solid, reputable choice; The company's low costs, coupled with its supremacy in the shared hosting arena, is what makes this provider such a valuable deal.
The Bluehost name is listed toward the top of many of our reviews categories, and with good reason. The brand is known for excellent hardware configurations, a generous list of extras, and fantastic support and reliability — all at a price point that’s generally lower than the competition.
The speed and performance result from very modern hardware and a global content delivery network powered by Cloudflare. Bluehost also offers essentially unlimited everything, including storage, emails, and bandwidth, along with many other perks.
For example, Bluehost includes a free domain and marketing credits to get your site off the ground — further adding to its value.
We rank Bluehost at or near the top for its WordPress, VPS, and dedicated options. You’ll be happy to note the company's incredibly competitive pricing across the board, so be sure to check out the brand's services.
We are convinced Bluehost has the goods to meet your hosting needs today and in the future, but more importantly, so is the company's support staff. The company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee should you become dissatisfied with any of its plans for any reason; however, we’re willing to bet you won’t be.
2. Hostinger.com
A champion of affordable hosting, Hostinger is a popular pick for site owners looking for beginner-friendly shared servers. More than 29 million customers call Hostinger home as they scale websites through site builder, VPS, and WordPress hosting plans. When searching for a new plan, Hostinger is among the best at balancing high quality with low prices.
Unlimited everything, from bandwidth to databases
FREE site builder & WordPress performance upgrades
FREE daily or weekly backups
90+ auto-installation scripts and custom control panel
SSH access & SSL certificates
As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average.
Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers.
Hostinger clients who opt for the slightly more expensive (but still quite reasonable and remarkably affordable) Premium and Business hosting packages enjoy unlimited computing power and a free domain name registration, along with free backups.
Premium customers will see performance that measures up to two times faster than the company's cheapest shared hosting plan, while Business users benefit from speeds up to four times faster. Those consumers will also receive daily backups (instead of weekly), deluxe support, a free SSL certificate, and twice the processing power and memory.
The company's lowest tier of shared hosting services, geared for small, single sites, gets below the $3-per-month benchmark.
While perfectly adequate for new projects, professional résumés, and new blogs, we recommend users sign up for one of the more upscale plans; room to grow is important, and the forward-thinking decision eliminates any potential hassles with upgrading services or migrating files.
Overall, we appreciate how Hostinger doesn't sacrifice performance and functionality when trying to appeal to budget-minded site owners.
The company's all-SSD infrastructure, combined with the inclusion of an easy-to-use site builder, maxed-out speed boosts, and options for a free SSL certificate and domain name, are sure to facilitate lasting and long-term hosting relationships.
3. InterServer.net
Built by web hosting geeks for web hosting geeks, InterServer is great for slightly more experienced hosting customers who don't mind paying a little more for premium services and support. The independently owned company runs its own datacenter, offers a bevy of unlimited features, and takes a hands-on approach to 24/7 support.
$0.01 for the first month, then $5 monthly after
NO annual contracts and NO sudden price increases
Unlimited storage space, data transfers, and email
New domain is $11 with 1-month plan ($1.99 otherwise)
99.9% uptime and price-lock guarantee
It's hard to argue with a shared hosting plan that includes unlimited storage, bandwidth, websites, and email — but shared hosting is a crowded industry that turns on name recognition, reputation, and bargain-basement prices. InterServer outperforms some of our higher-rated hosts, but we understand that many first-time site owners are laser-focused on finding the lowest costs.
InterServer's shared options are best for the more experienced user who will appreciate SSD caching servers and RAID-10 storage, along with included perks such as Cloudflare CDN and free SSL certificates.
Free migrations and automatic weekly backups add to the list of advantages included under InterServer's premium price.
On the flip side, however, novice customers will enjoy a free website builder when designing and launching their site. Although InterServer's 400-plus installation scripts cover a number of content management systems and eCommerce tools, other hosts take a more hands-on approach to empowering these customers to start an online store.
InterServer may make up for its somewhat higher rates with a price-lock guarantee — the price when you sign up is what you can expect to pay for the life of your account. What's more, InterServer won't lock you up with lengthy contracts.
Customers can get discounted rates by paying up front for services; otherwise, your hosting plan runs month-to-month. Users will appreciate knowing what bills to expect and not having to deal with annual rate hikes.
Not All Hosting Companies Are Created Equal
As you can see from our list of various business web hosting categories, there are many components that go into creating a successful website. Pick the provider and features that best meet your current expertise — as well as future aspirations.
Whatever options you choose for your small business, a good web hosting provider will play a big part in your success. Whether through support, uptime, or a killer design template you found on their site builder, your web host will help you put your best online foot forward.
As your company grows, you’ll want to expand your hosting plan. Cloud or VPS hosting gives you more power, reliability, and flexibility as your business starts to take over the market.